EN101 Analysis Essay Fall 2020

EN101 Analysis Essay

General Description

Analysis Essay

Imagine you want to figure out how an old, mechanical clock works. You know that if you wind it up, it keeps accurate time for about a day, and that it needs to be wound every day to maintain its accuracy. But maybe you have little idea of how the clock functions, how the gears and springs work together to create a machine capable of keeping track of seconds, minutes, and hours. In order to understand how the clock works, you might get a set of tools and carefully take a clock apart, keeping track of each gear, screw, and spring as you do. You might then understand how winding the clock coils up the spring, and how the slow unwinding of the spring turns a series of gears which in turn move the hands on the clock face at different rates. You would then understand something about how a mechanical clock works.

If you did all this, you would have analyzed how the clock works: To analyze something is to take it apart, look at the pieces individually and in relation to each other, and use your examination of the pieces to better understand the whole.

For example, you might analyze a song by examining repeated images in the lyrics and look at how these images combine with some element of the music to create an overall effect. (Maybe a song has violent images combined with soft, soothing music, for example).

Or you could analyze the different ways students use Twitter (maybe to keep up with the news, interact with celebrities, and communicate with friends).

EN101 Analysis Essay

You could analyze a written argument by outlining the different parts of the argument and examining how effective or strong each part is and how those parts work together (or how they fail to be convincing because they don’t work well together).

You could analyze someone’s speech by examining the sorts of words and phrases he or she uses (maybe a presidential candidate frequently uses words or images that remind listeners of warm, family feelings; or maybe one uses words intended to make listeners feel threatened and afraid).

Requirements

• 500 words minimum (two double-spaced, typed pages)
• An introduction paragraph that elegantly explains your topic, indicates why your topic

  matters to your reader, and presents your thesis

• Three body paragraphs (or more! More is good, too). These could be organized in a

  variety of ways, but one easy way is to devote one paragraph to each of the pieces you create through your analysis of your topic. For example, in the Twitter example above, you might have a paragraph focused on using Twitter to follow the news, one paragraph about how students use Twitter to interact with celebrities, and one paragraph devoted to how students use Twitter to communicate with friends.

• A conclusion paragraph that extends the thesis in some way and points beyond the paper by giving the reader something to think about or some action to take.

EN101 Analysis Essay

Suggested Topics

Analyze the language a presidential candidate or other politician uses to communicate. Analyze a song (including lyrics and music).
Analyze a movie.
Analyze an episode of a TV show.

Analyze a short story.
Analyze a poem.
Analyze a novel.
Analyze a political cartoon.
Analyze an advertisement (either a commercial or an image).
Analyze how Fisher College students use some specific technology (for example, analyze how Fisher students use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, or some other social media service).

Analyze the argument presented in an essay published in a newspaper, magazine or other national publication.

A Note About Topics

All the suggested topics above are broad; you will need to narrow your topic down to something unique to you and that you can fully address in approximately 500 words..

Due Dates

Draft Due on Blackboard Sunday November 22 Final copy due on Blackboard Sunday December 6

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